Billy Wilder

In 1992, Billy Wilder’s 1944 film Double Indemnity was preserved by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It is clear that the film has had a major impact in cinema but it was created to protest Los Angeles but suffered many hurdles to complete. However, Double Indemnity would effectively jump start the noir movement and influence cinema to this day. When Double Indemnity was first played in theaters audiences and critics reacted in shock with the movie’s despicableness. However, the making of Double Indemnity had been already forged in the crime-obsessed 1920s to 1940s Los Angeles. The crimes of Guy McAfee, Charlie Crawford and the deaths of Virginia Rappe and Desmond Taylor dominated headlines in Los Angeles prior to Double…

Billy Wilder is an American film maker who has produced more than 30 films in his lifetime. Three films in particular though have caught critic’s eyes everywhere. Double Indemnity, made in 1944, The Seven Year Itch, made in 1955, and Some like it hot, made in 1959. Billy Wilder’s style in his films could be described as comic in most of his films but some of them like Double Indemnity could be described as dark as it is a film noir. Over the decades Billy Wilder’s films do improves in style. In…

Even though film experts still debate what genre it best falls into, the 1950 Billy Wilder-directed film Sunset Boulevard is, in many respects, the archetypal film noir, and is also widely regarded as one of the most brutally honest depictions of Hollywood, by Hollywood. One of the biggest reasons Wilder’s film is viewed as such an exemplar of the film noir movement is its innovative use of lighting effects. Use of lighting can make or break a black-and-white film much more than it can one in…

components: lighting, camera angles, and composition. Over the course of 107 thrilling minutes, Walter Neff becomes a whole new person due to his relationship with Phyllis. In his film Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder uses cinematography to demonstrate the progression of Walter Neff’s character from a seemingly innocent insurance agent to a criminal. In the beginning of the film, Walter Neff is viewed as a happy and confident insurance agent, and immediately becomes the protagonist in the movie.…

often used to display the effect people have on other’s realities and beliefs. In Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder and King Lear by William Shakespeare, complex characters are used to demonstrate how permissive relationships can create the false reality and ultimate madness one may endure. In Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond experiences a sheltered life that leads to a state of insanity. While much of this insanity comes from her own state of mind, her butler, Max, is the main enabler of her…

Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder in 1944, is often regarded as the first ‘true’ film noir in film history (Caldwell, 2008). The questionable anti-hero Walter Neff operating in the underground world of murder and fraud, accompanied by Phyllis Dietrichson who adds a further element of adultery and desire, creates an unmistakable atmosphere of danger and passion (Bitoun 2014). The original story of Double Indemnity was published as an eight-part serial in Liberty magazine during the…

Violence against a character is essential in developing a character. Violence is often portrayed in film through intense chase scenes or messy breakups. In The Apartment, Billy Wilder develops Fran Kubelik and Mr. Sheldrake by using relational violence. While meeting for Christmas Eve, Mr. Sheldrake is a lousy date, only giving Fran a one-hundred-dollar bill as a gift; however, Fran gifts him a record of Sheldrake’s favorite song, which had been played on an earlier date; it is a meaningful…

The Apartment Film has a specific structure that creates meaning out of a series of photographs. This structure uses a specific language to create a narrative that the spectator should be able to understand. Christian Metz believes that through denotation a stronger meaning can be derived from the connotation. The study of connotation is that it is always symbolic in its nature, while denotation is the literal sense of the film. Connotative meaning should extend over the denotative meaning…

Connections Everybody has the ability to be manipulative.Manipulative people latch onto empathetic targets and make full use of their qualities. They find people who are easy-going, gentle and kind and who avoid conflict. Throughout the films double indemnity directed by Billy Wilder, nightcrawler directed by dan Gilroy, LA confidential directed by Curtis Hanson and training day directed by Antoine Fuqua, we find that these films have a strong theme of manipulation occurring. This…

Professor Bernstein explained that he was a fan of Billy Wilder movies, and especially Sunset Boulevard. He also recommended that I watch The Sting, which I have now added to my watchlist on IMDb. I told the professor that a couple of my favorite films are The Social Network and The Shawshank Redemption. He agreed that both of these movies told excellent stories, and he even said that he was on the Harvard campus when Mark Zuckerberg crashed the campus servers with Facesmash. When I was…